Saturday, May 29, 2010

Sevilla

Let's see, the last time I updated I was sitting on the bed in a hostle in Lisbon. It was a good bed. Not too soft and not to hard. The wind was blowing softly through the curtains. I could smell a light sent of sardines wafting through the breeze. The sounds of children playing in the streets danced upon my eardrums. All was well with the world.

That was just because Emily was harping on me for writing with too much detail. Take that, yo.

Anyway... The last time i updated was actually at my last hosts house. Here's the deal since then:

We stayed with Nuno for two nights and left Lisbon on Thursday morning. We had to get up early to catch a 930 train to Badajoz, Spain. The train station was accross the city so it was a bit of a trek (and annoying because the metro passes don't work for the other public transportation systems which meant buying additional passes for just one ride. Sad. Anyway we made it to the bus with time to spare and got some food because we were starving. We checked our luggage with the bus driver (who was less than friendly) and sat down to wait a few mins until the bus left. Emily decided to go buy a pack of gum and instead of trying to figure out what the flavor was before buying it, she purchased the most discusting flavor imaginable--and I've been chewing it since...

The bus ride was fine-- big leather seats made it easy to sleep the whole 3 hr trip. We got to Badajoz two hours before our transfer to Seville so we got some lunch--it's nice to be back in Spain where four course 3 hr long meals are to be expected--Portugal had slow meals too, but nothing like Spain.

The bus ride was fine-- i watched the countryside this time and it was cool to see the change in terrain as we headed south into Andlucia. We arrived in Seville by the early evening and wandered around the historic center with our packs on for about an hour before we found the right hostel.

We chilled out in the hostel for a bit before meeting a guy from California who came out to dinner with us. He shared storied about his travels in morrocco which were amazing and convinced me that waiting until I can devote the propped amount of time to a trip there was probably a better idea than our original plan of stopping by for just a few days.

After dinner we went out to see the town at night and went to bed at a decent hour. We spent yesterday walking around the city... We went to the Torre del Oro (tower of gold) which had a nifty maratime museum and offered a nice view of the city. We also went to the Museo de Bellas Artes (fine art) And saw lots and lots and lots of catholic paintings as well as a Murillo exhibit which had a few paintings that I really enjoyed. And the building was fantastic. Actually all of Seville is fantastic-- the archetecture is amazing. The styles are scattered but it works and comes together as a really beautiful city.

Last night, we made friends with what seemed to be the entire hostle-- Emily and I, the Californian, four Polish girls, an Irishman, two guys from Cambridge, and a French dude. We all ended up on the roof of the hostel enjoying each others company and some Spanish wine (and some Moroccan). After that we went to a few clubs and explored the scene on the other side of the Rio Guadalquivir. Emily then went on a brief search for late night kebab but failed in that quest and went home for the night.

The morning the whole crew assembled in the kitched for breakfast and to recap the nights activities (except for the Cambridge guys who went a bit wild-- one didn't return to the hostal to sleep until about 930 in the morning. They had a rental car and we had planned on sharing the ride to Cadiz, but needlessnto say they werent going to be going anywhere very soon.

So, now we are on a train to Cadiz, supposedly the oldest city in Europe, we will be arriving around 6 and will probably have to find a hostel unless we got a response to couch surfing... I can't wait to get some beach time tomorrow-- I'm just do dead. I think that I'm gonna wake up early just so that I can head to the beach and go back to sleep there.